Food Blog

Healthy plant-based recipes full of good stuff whilst being free from refined sugars and wheat. The food blog is a space to kickstart your inner creativity!

Well my first giveaway ended last week and was a great success (in my opinion!) I loved having something to giveaway to my readers and am planning a few more giveaways in coming weeks and months... so watch this space!

Let's get back to food! ...namely cookies!

When I was following the candida diet, I was trying to find any loophole possible to get my sweetness. Sweet tooth...me? ...never!! :-)

I researched the guidelines, talked to specialists and asked lots of questions to others who had followed a similar restricted diet. One of the sweeteners it initially appeared ok for me to consume in very limited quantities was yacon syrup. Ultimately I was advised against eating it at all during the strictest stage but it is a great alternative for those following a low sugar diet for others reasons, or phase two of the candida cleanse.

I had a play around with the syrup in making some cookies, it's a lovely thick syrup very similar to brown rice syrup and with a similar flavour also. Since I was using a very small quantity of syrup (bumping the sweetness with stevia- but you could use a little extra syrup if you prefer) I used lots of nut butter to help give a lovely crisp/chewy texture. I've previously found that low sugar and low fat cookies tend to be quite soft and 'cakey' and this wasn't what I was going for here.

I made two versions, a plain one and then a second batch with some cocoa mixed through a a drizzle of raw cacao liquid on top. Both were yummy! You may want to add a little extra syrup to the choc version to help bind the fry ingredients but also because for me a chocolate treat automatically wants to be a little sweeter (that's my personable taste!)

I loved the fact these cookies were so 'substantial' (if you know what I mean), no messing with these bad boys! The'll kick mid afternoon cravings right into touch.

Recipe: Oaty yacon cookies

Makes approx 10-12 cookies

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups oats

¼ cup chia seeds

2 tbs coconut oil

3 tbs nut butter

½ an avocado- mashed

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 heaped tsp cinnamon

2 tbs carob or 2 tbs cocoa (optional)

¼ tsp salt

1 tbs yacon syrup

10 drops pure stevia (or approx ¼ tsp powder)

½ cup chopped nuts/seeds/cacoa nibs- optional

Decoration- 3 tbs melted cacao with 4 drops stevia mixed in.

Method:

Melt the coconut oil, nut butter, yacon, vanilla extract and salt in a medium saucepan over a low-medium heat. You’ll need to whisk a little to break up and blend the nut butter.

Add all remaining Ingredients and turn off the heat. Mix well to coat evenly and make sure the mashed avocado is evenly mixed through.

Scoop dollops of the mix and flatten into round cookies on a lined baking sheet. Bake at 180C for approx 15 minutes until slighly golden. If desired drizzle with a little melted cacao and allow to set.

Will store in an airtight container for a 1 week. These cookies are more crisp when fresh then become a chewy oaty cookie in the following days.

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